ANC has failed SA - Moeletsi Mbeki

Politics / 17 July 2013, 09:57am

PIET RAMPEDI

2013/07/16, Political economist, Moeletsi Goduka Mbeki, debates with Western Cape Premier and leader of the opposition political party namely the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille, at the Crowne Plaza in Rosebank, Johannesburg. Picture: Adrian de Kock

Johannesburg - Businessman and political analyst Moeletsi Mbeki has launched a scathing attack on the ANC, saying it was starting to “peel off”.

Mbeki said the party had very little to show after being in power for nearly 20 years.

He said President Jacob Zuma’s organisation had chosen to “put a plaster” called social grants on poverty instead of eradicating it.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion with DA leader Helen Zille in Joburg on Tuesday night, Mbeki said South Africa’s corruption perception index had increased to 69 percent this year from 34 percent in 1994 under the ANC’s watch.

Mbeki is linked to the newly formed political party Agang SA, led by Mamphela Ramphele.

He said the problems had resulted in the ANC’s alliance partners, business, locals and the international community losing confidence in the ruling party.

“So you can see the ANC is starting to peel off. The reason is that it has been in power for 20 years, but what does it have to show for being in power for 20 years?

“In 20 years, we have hardly put a dent on poverty. What we have done is put a plaster on it called social grants,” he said.

Mbeki maintained that the economy was de-industrialising, gross domestic product had dropped, while the Zuma administration was failing to build new skyscrapers such as those mushrooming in developing countries like Brazil.

“The management of urbanisation in South Africa is scandalous,” he added.

As a result of the downward spiral, Mbeki said, splinter parties such as Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters and South Africa First had been launched.

However, he said he believed South Africa was not at a crossroads, but the ANC was.

“Many people think that South Africa and the ANC are interchangeable.”

Zille said South Africa was at a perpetual crossroads because the country was not yet a consolidated democracy.

However, she said she was more confident that the country had a chance to be consolidated now than 20 years go.

“South Africa will remain at a crossroads unless there is a realignment,” Zille said.

She said there was a need for a political alliance to defend the constitution, deliver genuine non-racialism and secure independent state institutions.

ANC national spokeswoman Khusela Sangoni-Khawe on Tuesday night dismissed Mbeki and Zille’s claims, saying the duo were suffering from a “romanticised view” that said liberation movements must fail after being in power for 20 years.